Tom Murray serves as the Director of Innovation for Future Ready Schools, a project of the Alliance for Excellent Education, located in Washington, D.C. and is co-author of the new ASCD book, Learning Transformed: 8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow’s Schools, Today.

I’m fortunate to have met Tom and learn so much from his presentations and keynotes. He sent me a copy of his and Eric Sheninger’s book, Learning Transformed for me to review. What a valuable book for schools! I feel so honored that Tom shared his journey to transform learning with me. Below are a few excerpts from the podcast, Tom’s contact information and a recent webinar with Tom and Eric.

Can you share a little about you, your family, and your former life as a teacher and principal?

My family is the reason why I do the work I do. When I do keynotes or presentations, I start with pictures of my family, my babies. My little girl, Paisley, is a second grader at a public school in Pennsylvania at a wonderful district, Parkland School District. My little boy just turned four. They are the lens that I do what I do. I look at what would I want for my own kids. If it’s good enough for my kids, it’s good for every kid. I’m not this 50,000-foot policy person that’s never done what I’m talking about trying to tell school leaders what to do. I spent 14 years in public schools in Pennsylvania first as a teacher, a number of years in 4th grade and taught middle school for a couple of years. I became a middle school principal and then an elementary school principal for three years. After that, I moved to the district office where I was the Director of Technology and Cyber Education.

How did you and others start #edtechchat?

You know #edchat was around along with other great Twitter chats and I was asked to guest moderate several chats talking about Ed Tech. About 5 years ago, I talked to Katrina Stevens @KatrinaStevens1, Susan Bearden @s_bearden, Sharon Plante @iplante, and Alex Podchasky @ajpodchaski on a Google Hangout one day where we asked, “what if we started a chat around Ed Tech?” We decided it was not for the purpose of talking just about tools or devices, but to focus on learning and the effective use of Ed Tech. On our first chat, we had no idea how many would join us and over 100 people showed up. Our team has expanded over the last few years with 9 or 10 of us running the chat. We’ve had guest moderators with people from superintendents to teachers and some like Arne Duncan which was his first Twitter chat to ever moderate when he was Secretary of Education. We avoid the sales pitch side of things because we want to talk about learning and hear from teachers and other educators. #edtechchat is on every Monday night from 8-9 EST and hope to see people there.

Can you tell me about your work with Future Ready Schools?

After 14 years at my district, I have been the Director of Innovation for Future Ready Schools for the past three years. I get to work with school leaders from coast to coast running events for hundreds of leaders encouraging them to network, collaborate and share best practices or it could be running leadership retreats or being at conferences where I often see you around the country. Under the scope of my role, I see schools in some of the poorest areas in our country and visit the urbanest areas. I’ve truly grown as an educator and learned as much in the last 3 years as I did in my first few years as a brand new teacher as well.

What does it mean for a district to be Future Ready?

My home organization where I work in Washington DC is known as the Alliance for Excellence Education. They are a bipartisan, nonprofit group whose work is really focused on student achievement and helping kids to get to graduation. One of our core themes is equity for all students to have the same access like I did growing up in suburbia. I recognize my privilege. That’s part of my passionate reason to help all kids so they have similar experiences as I did. So the Alliance does a lot of work on the policy side and helping write about ESSA from a bipartisan view. However, Future Ready is not just the Alliance. It is a collaboration between of over 60 organizations from places like ISTE and COSN to organizations like AASA for Superintendents and NASSP for principals to teacher organizations like AFT and NEA. Future Ready does not have a sales pitch. It is grant funded in a variety of different ways along with corporate sponsors through their foundations. What we do is take all the work we are doing and trying to move it forward to connect and collaborate free for school districts

The first two years for Future Ready were focused on district leadership because we always believed there were pockets of great things going on in schools. To scale the work, district leadership needs to be on board. There are over 3100 district superintendents representing over 21 million children who already signed our Future Ready pledge. Future Ready (futureready.org) just launched 5 strands this year. So now there are Future Ready Superintendents, Principals, Librarians, Instructional Technologists, and Instructional Coaches. Each of these strands has their own Facebook pages. A workshop for 10 to 15 principals is run by principals. Same for the other strands with people who have been there shaping the content and experiences to make it real for the participants. The idea is to move our schools forward with our kids at the heart and center of the decision-making.

I’ve read your amazing new book, Learning Transformed that you co-authored with Eric Sheninger. I really appreciate how you both got to the heart of what matters most for our kids. Why did you start in your introduction with “A Sense of Urgency?”

Eric and I are blessed to work not only in keynotes but closely in workshops with thousands of school leaders every year. We see the really hard issues they are struggling with that are on their plates. Some of those issues are equity, access, and even budget cuts. We wanted to put a book together that were the common themes and struggles we are seeing and where the schools are that are truly transforming learning. So you asked why we started with “A Sense of Urgency?” To create that compelling “WHY” and to put that hook out there. What is the need to transform?

Part of the reason we did that is that it is easy to become myopic looking only in our building, school or district. Eric and I see the vast inequities that exist for places like our females in areas of STEM or opportunities for our students of color. Three things we considered in our book. (1) How do we handle all of those pieces? (2) We wanted to create an awareness of those issues. (3) Everything needed to be grounded in research with evidence.

Schools tend to hop on the latest bandwagon and trend to spend all their money. Then they look back and see that it didn’t even do anything. We have to be better stewards of our spending, especially if is coming out of the taxpayer’s wallet. As leaders, we have an obligation to spend the taxpayer’s money well. But more importantly, we have to create really robust learning experiences for kids. Part of that sense of urgency is helping people understand what the world of work is projected to look like. My little girl going into second grade and will be in the high school graduating class of 2028. My little boy will be in the class of 2032. So what will the world of work look like in 2036 when my boy graduates from college. That’s almost 20 years from now. That’s the reality of the future for my family and that becomes really urgent for me. That’s my lens. But in our roles as educators, we need to create that sense of urgency to prepare all children for their world, their future.

We have to look at what that world will look like for them. Eric and I referenced about 190 research reports to ground what we wrote in evidence. We wanted to provide research so learners can be successful in their future world of work. For example, they are projecting that there are 4-5 jobs today that pay under $20/hour that will eventually be automated. If those predictions come true, what happens to our economy and the people involved? What does that mean for the world of work? That’s where we need to focus on teaching and learning since we are shaping those students that will be leading that future. That’s truly why we have that sense of urgency.

How do you take the evidence grounded in the WHY and compare it to traditional practice happening in your school or district? We found schools and superintendents with innovative practices in action (IPA) that back up what they are doing and aligning it to the research. We wanted to move from the evidence to the practice in every chapter.

You mention intentionally designing for tomorrow’s schools. The 8 keys provide evidence-based practices and innovative ideas to provide a dynamic, blueprint for redefining student learning. Is that why Key #1 is Leadership and School Culture to lay the Foundation?

We are very purposeful with leadership in schools and culture as setting the tone. Eric and I have been in some of the poorest areas, in fact, I was in a place in Mississippi that was still on dial-up. Here’s the thing, we’ve seen some of the poorest areas do amazing dynamic things with kids. Why? Because of school leadership. Then we see other areas where they have more than enough technology but they are still teaching the way they used to teach years ago. There are kids who are compliant and play school really well so they do well in school. The difference comes down to leadership. I’ve never seen districts that do amazing things without dynamic leaders.

Leadership may mean that the best leaders could be the 5th-grade teacher or a support staff member that are leading the way. It is not just LBT (Leaders By Title) — it really means Leaders By Action who make the change. Leadership and school culture lay that foundation. You can have the greatest plan but if you have a toxic school environment, it will fall apart. Another theme in our book that matters for culture is relationships. How do we form and cultivate those relationships? That is the heart and soul of transformation.

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I hope you listen to the entire podcast with Tom for the rest of our conversation. Tom is so passionate about transforming teaching and learning and that comes across in the podcast. This was an amazing opportunity for me to have this conversation with him about his and Eric’s amazing book. I captured excerpts of our conversation in the post above but there is more so don’t miss it. He continued to discuss information on student agency as a valuable component for the “Netflix Generation,” why it is important to avoid the “Cemetery Effect ” and design learner-centered environments and brought it all back to why we need to transform learning: it’s all about our kids. I highly recommend every educator who believes it is time to transform teaching and learning to read Learning Transformed.

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Tom Murray has testified before the United States Congress and works alongside that body, the US Senate, the White House, the US Department of Education and state departments of education, corporations, and school districts throughout the country to implement student-centered, personalized learning while helping to leadFuture Ready Schools andDigital Learning Day. Murray serves as a regular conference keynote, was named the “2017 Education Thought Leader of the Year,” one of “20 to Watch” by NSBA in 2016, one of the top 20 thought leaders in education, and was named the “Education Policy Person of the Year” by the Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015. His new book, Learning Transformed, co-authored with Eric Sheninger and published by ASCD, was released in June 2017.

I was brought up to think on my own; to color outside the lines; to be creative, and always ask “why” even if there were no answers to the questions. I have always been curious asking why we are here; why the grass is green and the sky is blue; why being passionate about something makes you feel so good; and even why there were so many questions. A few years ago, I wrote what I believe and don’t believe about learning which still works for me today.

To believe…

To not believe…

everyone is a learner.

anyone can learn at any age.

anything can be a teachable moment.

learning can happen anywhere.

you can take risks, fail and try again.

everyone can be a teacher and a learner.

real learning can be “messy.”

everyone needs a voice in their learning.

anyone can own and drive learning.

that each of us can advocate for what we believe in.

a teacher is the only expert.

that students need to sit in rows.

content is only from the curriculum.

in giving up.

in saying I can’t.

in labeling students.

in standardized tests.

learning stops when school ends.

school is the only place for learning.

that you are destined for only one career.

What do you believe and don’t believe about learning?

It’s been wonderful having conversations with amazing educators in the Rethinking Learning podcast series. In doing several of the podcasts and learning about their pasts, I decided I wanted to reflect on how I got to now.

Being Different

If you know me, you may not believe that I was actually very shy. I don’t remember much of kindergarten except that I had problems coloring inside the lines. My mom was an artist and told me there were no lines and to draw where ever I wanted. She made all my clothes and finger curled my hair so I looked like Shirley Temple. She made me believe that I was beautiful, smart, and could do anything. When I went to school, reality hit me. I had trouble fitting in with everyone else. Some of the other kids made fun of my clothes and my curly hair. I didn’t look like everyone else. Actually, the real problem was because I didn’t want to follow the rules, so I kept my mouth shut.

My life at home was so different than my experiences at school. My parents told me I was beautiful and asked me every day what I did that day. I had a voice at the dinner table and with my sisters. Yet, in school, I had very few interactions with others and felt invisible. My teachers made me sit still, fold my hands, keep quiet, and only go to the bathroom when they allowed it.

Learning My Options

In third grade, I had a new teacher who believed in play, being creative and encouraging everyone’s voice. We did projects in groups. I remember creating a paper-maché map, sitting wherever we wanted, dancing, and playing fun roles in plays. We did a lot of giggling and had fun in class. He took time to get to know all of us. It was the first time I really enjoyed school and felt like someone cared. Halfway through the school year, he was evaluated by the principal and the classroom changed. He made even stricter rules than I had before. We had to sit in rows. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Learning was fun and now back to the same old ways. Fourth grade was even stricter and I only spoke when called on. My parents were told that I wasn’t going to go very far if I didn’t follow the rules. My parents were my advocates, but there weren’t that many options for me in school other than following the rules and keeping my mouth shut when I was young.

Nothing much changed in my K-12 world. A few teachers took the time to get to know me, but most of the time I just went through the motions. Very few ever asked me how I learn, why I was not getting something or even interacted with me. I learned how to “do” school. A high school counselor told me that I may want to look for a job instead of college. What? I loved learning but not the way school was then. I was just being compliant because that’s what the system seemed to want me to do. Now I wish I stood up and stood out. I did want to go to college and learn more.

Finding my Voice

So I went to a community college, and that’s where I found my voice. I tried a little of everything and realized I could do something if I put my mind to it. I loved writing and wrote a poem that my English teacher said was really good. He asked me to read it in the quad to other students at noon. I did, and they loved it. Wow! He then published my poem in the school newspaper and received wonderful reviews. I started writing more and wrote a short story that I entered into a contest and won. Looking back, I just wonder who I would be now if I knew I could write and found my voice earlier.

I do have to say now when I look back at my younger self, I wish I appreciated my privileged life. I had a family who cared for me and believed in me. I went to good schools. The teachers only did what they were taught or told to do. It was just the system that wasn’t working for me. I made a choice back when I was younger to be compliant.

Later when I realized it was my choice on how I was going to learn, that I decided I was going to do whatever I could to change the education system. I knew that every child needed to have a voice in how and what they learn. They need to know they can have a voice and make a choice on how and what they want to learn. That’s why I went into education. Maybe I had to go through what I went through to be who I am today. I know so many others who are adamant in changing the system because of their own experiences. I tried to change the system for my children, but it’s not that easy to change it as a parent. That’s another post to write. So through my journey, I eventually found my voice and discovered that my purpose is to share stories of awesome educators, administrators, and learners and how they changed the way they teach and learn. That’s why I have this website and started my podcast series, Conversations on Learning.

So I believe…

We have to transform teaching and learning because the system still encourages compliance for most of our kids and teachers. But things are changing. The future is here now. Businesses want people who are creative, critical thinkers and can self-advocate for what they believe in. We need to prepare our kids to be global citizens in a world that encourages agency so they embrace and demonstrate creativity, imagination, and innovation.

Let’s be there for all children and educators so they have a voice in discovering their passion and purpose for learning.

Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D. is Superintendent at Salisbury Township School District and Clinical Adjunct Professor at Moravian College in Pennsylvania. Randy is a blogger, speaker, and podcast host at TLTalk Radio and Shift Your Paradigm.

I have known Randy for several years on social media and have been fortunate to be on his podcast show twice. When I met him in person at Educon last January, we had a great talk about the future of learning. I knew then he was going to keep pushing the edge with his co-host Lynn Fuini-Hetten, especially now with their new show, Shift the Paradigm. I was so excited that Randy agreed to join me on my podcast and below are excerpts from our conversation on learning.

Can you share about you, your background, and your journey as superintendent of Salisbury Township School District?

Yes, I am currently Superintendent of Salisbury Township School District in Pennsylvania. It was fun meeting you at Educon in Philadelphia last year. In fact, we’re located about an hour north of Philadelphia and 90 minutes to New York city. It’s a great place geographically being so close to cultural events. This is my 32nd year in education. My first 12 years I taught middle school music, general music, and musical theater. I was a music major in college. About 8 or 9 years into my teaching, this thing called a computer landed in my classroom. I got very curious about what I could do using computers for kids learning music. We were sequencing music and making all sorts of sounds. If you walked by my room, it was like a three-ring circus. Kids were doing all sorts of things connected to their interests and passions around music. During that time, I became interested in not only musical things but learning about technology.

After 19 years in the school district next door, I moved to a more formal leadership position as the Director of Technology here at Salisbury Township and did that for six years. I have the pleasure of working with an amazing team of teachers, students, and parents. We accomplished a lot of things during that time. Back around 2006, there was one desktop PC for each instructional area. It was a pretty traditional school. Now we are a K-12 school district where every student has their own learning device which took a lot of planning, thinking, collaborating, and work to get there. One thing I shared with Lynn Fuinehetten, my podcast collaborator and assistant superintendent here is that it has been an interesting journey to see how the conversations and the transformation really moved away from the technology to really focus on learning. Learning has changed and can change as a result of having access.

Mission: Salisbury…Inspire, Think, Learn, Grow… Together!

Can you share how you and your administration created a culture of learning?

All that I learned about leadership, I can trace back to the roots of being a musician. The way that musicians learn mirrors the way we believe powerful learning happens. As a music teacher, much of what I did involve leading groups which helped me shape what I believe is leadership. One of the things we embrace around here is that everyone is a learner and everyone is a leader. That culture of learning is exemplified in the profile of a graduate. We had a lot of conversations on what learning looks like. A few years ago we embarked on this process where we asked two basic questions to help shape our culture of learning:

What knowledge, skills, and dispositions do our current learners need to have to be successful once they leave us?We call that life; not just focusing on a career, not just making money, not just being a good citizen, but just living a good life.

What kinds of learning environments are going to help us to help them best get there?What do we believe about learning not only for our children but across the organization? If we are all learners and all leaders, then all those things we believe about learning apply to all of us.

Are these the questions you used to develop a progressive vision for teaching and learning in 2020, the Profile of a Graduate and Learning Beliefs?

It’s been good to have those two questions and the work around the profile of the graduate and learning beliefs really ground what we do around here. The profile of the graduate is essentially our vision and our job is to provide the resources and support to help you get there. We want to empower our leaders and teachers to ask those questions and think deeply about those questions because they are not questions that are easily answered. Lynn and I met with our stakeholders on their turf. The stakeholders were our students, parents, teachers, leaders, and our community and asked them those questions. We then synthesized those in the profile of our graduate and the learning beliefs to help us get there. We had to create some action plans around a culture that model those learning beliefs and that empowers our teachers, our leaders, and our students to learn in a way we say powerful learning happens.

We created professional development opportunities that really allowed our principals and teacher leadership teams to personalize their own learning journeys throughout the year that was tied to the profile of the graduate goals. What was really exciting and kind of frightening was we found that every school was not doing the same thing in the same way at the same time. Each principal and leadership team had the opportunity to identify the needs, the gaps, how to harness the strengths of the people within their school, and how to create something new to move them toward the goals. Each school is different and the work models our emphasis on personalization. Hope this gives you from a leadership perspective a background of Salisbury as a learning culture.

Are these the questions you used to develop a progressive vision for teaching and learning in 2020, the Profile of a Graduate and Learning Beliefs?

It’s been good to have those two questions and the work around the profile of the graduate and learning beliefs really ground what we do around here. The profile of the graduate is essentially our vision and our job is to provide the resources and support to help you get there. We want to empower our leaders and teachers to ask those questions and think deeply about those questions because they are not questions that are easily answered. Lynn and I met with our stakeholders on their turf. The stakeholders were our students, parents, teachers, leaders, and our community and asked them those questions. We then synthesized those in the profile of our graduate and the learning beliefs to help us get there. We had to create some action plans around a culture that model those learning beliefs and that empowers our teachers, our leaders, and our students to learn in a way we say powerful learning happens.

We created professional development opportunities that really allowed our principals and teacher leadership teams to personalize their own learning journey throughout the year that was tied to the profile of the graduate goals. What was really exciting and kind of frightening was we found that every school was not doing the same thing in the same way at the same time. Each principal and leadership team had the opportunity to identify the needs, the gaps, how to harness the strengths of the people within their school, and how to create something new to move them toward the goals. Each school is different and the work models our emphasis on personalization. Hope this gives you from a leadership perspective a background of Salisbury as a learning culture.

Can you share the background of TLTalkRadio with Lynn Fuinehetten? with Working at the Edge?

Lynn and I wanted to model this idea of being learners. There was professional development focusing on pockets of innovation that was happening in districts. Mostly our conversations were with teachers who did project-based learning, personalized learning, genius hour, digital portfolios, etc. We decided to find educators and authors who were mostly curious and open to change like you and Kathleen. Lynn and I modeled the learning process by reaching out to you and others, reading your books, and having conversations with you. We hope to take an hour of your time and get inside your brain, understand your expertise and bring that back to our community. The podcasts, especially with authors, have been informing our practice.

One person we interviewed was Education Reimagined’s Director, Kelly Young and that’s where we were exposed to the idea of the North Star that they have in their white paper. We dug into the lexicon around words and these ideas of not defining terms but defining the parameters. Then letting educators inside those parameters like a sandbox. How do they create their own understanding and possibilities out of setting those parameters? We became very interested this strategy in involving all of our stakeholders to adapt and tweak the five learning beliefs with some more refined statements, parameters, and boundaries. We wanted everyone to be involved in the design from a learner’s perspective instead of top-down decisions.

Now you are sharing your learning and thinking on the Shift Your Paradigm Project. Can you tell me about the conversations and how you and Lynn make connections to practice?

As we were having these conversations around the five elements of the North Star, we inquired about this idea of leadership. If we are to create these learning environments, what kind of leadership does that require? Reflecting on our own practice, Lynn and I came to the realization that we do have to behave differently as leaders with different mindsets and potentially different skills. Shift Your Paradigm is designed to connect with leaders and learners from around the country who have created and are working on creating these kinds of learning environments. We try to get inside their heads to understand the ways in which they lead these kinds of learning cultures. That’s been a fascinating project and it’s really only begun with about nine episodes now. We expect this to be a pretty extended project, but ultimately, Lynn and I in the end really want to contribute something new to the conversation around re-imagining leadership through the learner-centered paradigm.

If shifting the paradigm doesn’t make sense, I suggest linking to the work at Reimagined Education. What’s so freeing about it is when you shift your paradigm to the idea of learner-centered, you begin to look at everything that happens within our culture that way. That’s what got us to look at leadership because this is so different. The dominant conversation is school-centered, top-down control that does not include learner agency. Now learner agency is at the core of everything that we do. As leaders, it also needs to be at the core of what we do too. How do we create opportunities for others to experience that learner agency? When you shift your thinking from the top-down control even though there may be times for that in our highly regulated domains of education, there are more times than not when we can truly be learner-centered throughout the whole system. We’re sort of beginning to uncover how we can do this differently not only in the classroom but across the whole organization. We’re a small school district with 1600 students. The shift in paradigm is about having conversations and building relationships and it is easier when you can get to know everyone. http://workingattheedge.org/shift-your-paradigm/

I’d like to expand on the idea of building relationships. What do you think of taking the first two weeks to build culture before jumping into academics?

One of the things we need to know about building relationships is that it takes time. I know so many school leaders that jump into quick solutions. You have to not be distracted by that. You have to be willing to put in the time to have conversations with people because it is a shifting of a mindset. In order to do that you have to build a relationship with that person or a group of people. Everybody needs to understand the intent and the way that you are approaching things. If you don’t put that time in, that’s when you might get something but it will not stick around or last. It hasn’t grown those roots or given it that time needed to take hold. I think that’s one of the things that is a little upsetting for our education community in general. There are a lot of ideas that are perceived as the silver bullet or the quick solution. Just read this book or follow this formula and then you will make it or it will happen and your life will be better. They can be great resources to start the conversations to get the thinking going. Every context is different. If you want to change the context, you have to have the conversations and believe those efforts will move you forward. There is no quick answer or silver bullet for any of our problems. If there was, then we wouldn’t be here wanting to shift the paradigm. That’s one of the things I struggle with. As a leader, how do we hold that “stuff” at arm’s length and say maybe there’s a value in that but let’s be very critical about what is that value. We need to allow the space and the time for people to figure that out.

It’s not just me doing this. My colleague Lynn does a fabulous job building relationships with people and encouraging conversations. I just happen to be the superintendent. It takes a whole community with everyone involved including our amazing kids. This year we are going to schedule conversations with kids so you can hear their voices and more on social media. My district’s Twitter handle is @yoursalisbury

Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D. is Superintendent at Salisbury Township School District and Clinical Adjunct Professor at Moravian College in Pennsylvania. Randy is a blogger, speaker, and podcast host at TLTalk Radio and Shift the Paradigm.

Randy is a life-long educator with 30 years of experience developing a passion for teaching, learning, leadership, technology and supporting the life-long learning of all students and staff. Strong background in developing and leading the implementation of a progressive vision for education, balancing increased opportunities for students with fiscal responsibility. Highly motivated by organizational challenges that involve new learning and problem-solving. Skilled at working collaboratively with a variety of stakeholders in the organization on small and large-scale projects, utilizing a data-informed stance to identify needs and take action to achieve goals. Accomplished educational professional with refined interpersonal and communications skills.

The problem with “kind of” listening is that it can lead to mistakes, misunderstandings, the wrong goals, wasting time and lack of teamwork. I love the quote in the graphic above from Ernest Hemingway. There are so many reasons for us to pause before we act. This pertains to listening as well. As a coach, I learned the importance of careful and thoughtful listening. Yet, I still have to remind myself about active listening. Some people think they are listening but to build positive relationships that work, they need to listen well.

“Listening is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well.” – John Marshall

They may be listening just enough to jump in to say what they want to say. Some have trouble concentrating on what the other person is saying so they zone out or daydream while the person is talking. There are others who think they are listening but actually are thinking of all the things they want to say or need to do that day. Listening is less important than how you listen. By listening in a way that demonstrates understanding and respect, you build a true foundation for a good relationship no matter if it is between coach and coachee, teacher and students, friends, mother and child, spouses, or team members.

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” – Ernest Hemingway

Ten tips to listening well:

Decide you want to listen: Remember the old adage about having two ears and one mouth. Maybe we’re supposed to listen twice as much as we speak. Whatever, it starts with the decision to listen.

Come with an open mind: It is very easy to come to a conversation with a preconceived idea about the other person and what they are going to say. Give them a chance to surprise you and you surprise them with an open mind and listening well.

Hear what they say: Make sure you can really hear the other person. It is surprising how often people do not realize that they cannot even hear other people. Make that you can really hear them first for effective listening. Let them know if you cannot hear what they are saying.

Give 100%: Show you care about the other person or persons by giving 100% of your attention to them and suspending all other activities. If you multitask while listening, you are not listening.

Listen 75%, speak 25% of the time: This is a powerful tip unless you are giving a speech. Try to allow the other person to speak more than you and listen to them.

Show interest: While the other person is speaking, lean forward and maintain eye contact. Be sensitive to their cultural background while listening. Some cultures find smiling offensive. Some people talk with their hands. When you are listening, use similar cultural gestures and actions.

Let the speaker finish the point they were making: Our brains speed along four times faster than when we speak. Try not to finish their sentences or interrupt. Wait for Pauses. When the speaker pauses, you might be able to jump in and ask a clarifying question. If there are not good long pauses, then wait until the speaker has completed speaking their idea.

Show understanding: Just saying “I understand” is not enough. People need some sort of evidence of understanding. You can demonstrate that you understand by occasionally restating the idea they were sharing or ask them a question that probes deeper into the main idea. Try not to repeat what they said just to prove you were listening. Active listening means you can show you understand what the other person is saying.

Respond with interest: You can demonstrate you received the message and how it had an impact on you. When you respond, speak at the same energy level as the other person. This will help the person who is speaking that they really got through to you and will not have to repeat what they said.

Be respectful: Let them know you take their views and ideas seriously. Be willing to communicate with others at their level of understanding and attitude by adjusting your tone of voice, the rate of speech and choice of words to show that you are empathetic and trying to imagine being where they are at the moment.

“I think one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention.” – Diane Sawyer

Ryan Sheehy is principal of Highlands Elementary School in Concord, CA. He is in charge of executing the school’s vision, building and implementing an instructional framework, and collaboratively working with staff and community to design a school that is student focused.

I was introduced to Ryan Sheehy by Adam Welcome who had a conversation with me earlier [Running Because Kids Deserve It]. I first connected with him on Twitter and it became really apparent how passionate he is about doing whatever he can for kids. Ryan came up with something I just had to share with my audience. Be the One! Below are excerpts from the podcast I had with Ryan. Enjoy!

Can you tell me about you, your family, and your background?

I grew up in San Diego and am the second oldest of eight kids. I had a diverse educational background. I went to public school, got home schooled for 3-4 years, went to private Catholic school, and then went to public high school. I met my wife in community college a couple of weeks after I turned 18 and have been married for 12 years with 4 beautiful children: Robert (10), Joshua (9), Juliana (7) and Zachary (4). We have a busy household and am currently moving to a new home. School Website

How did you come up with Be the One for your blog? Why is it important for you to write about this?

I met Adam Welcome who was my vice principal in another district, and he encouraged me to start blogging so I took the challenge. I try to put out one or two blog posts a week. This is something I feel very passionate about. I found my voice through blogging. I’ve worked at 14 different schools because I was an elementary physical education teacher working at 3 to 6 schools at a time and every staff room had one thing in common. People were scared to take that step to go outside the box and “Be the One” that changes it.

I’m passionate about the idea that one person can change the life of a child and change education for all. For me, I’ve been the one really pushing the envelope and changing things so now it’s time for me to share my message, my manifesto with the world. It’s been a model I’ve lived my life by. We all have the power to “Be the One.” All educators can live their life by this model because we’re in the business of kids and we need to “Be the One” for them, for each other, for our families, for education, and for life. Website: Be the One

You ask 2 questions in your blog “Who Tells Your Story” to teachers that tell you everything about the climate and culture in their classrooms: How do you connect with your families? How do you tell your classroom story? Why these questions?

When you walk into a classroom, you can instantly get the feeling in the classroom. Is this teacher showcasing everything they are doing in their classroom? These tell you how invested they are in their kids. We as an education profession have a hard time bragging about all the wonderful things that are happening in our classrooms. Most of us are in this for the right reasons, and we really need to showcase that. We need to “Be the One” that tells those stories. Too often we hear about all the negative things that happen in education and rarely hear the positive things. We know that there are negative things that happen and constantly face adversity.

We can “Be the One” that flips the script and tells the positive story. We can flood positivity through social media, newsletters home, and any other ways we connect and communicate to share our successes with everyone. Back to the two questions, I ask these questions when I do presentations with teachers and they tell you how invested they are in it. Too often we are afraid to tell our stories. They just need that extra push. It may feel like bragging, but it is showcasing. As a profession, we have so much power to share. Because I am connected with principals across the country, I’m able to take what they are doing and reshape it for our teachers in Mount Diablo Unified. Blog post Who Tells Your Story.

In a blog you wrote about relationships, you mentioned that you need people that challenge your thinking, not just like-minded folks. Can you share why relationships matter?

Relationships for me are the center of my world. As a teacher who went to different sites one day a week made me dig deeper about my teaching and how to create those relationships with teachers and students. On my first few days of teaching, I was thrown in right away with about 120 kids in each class. At one high poverty school where gangs were on the black top, kids were looking for positive role models and connections. Where do you learn about the school? On the blacktop.

That was where I noticed a fourth grader making some bad choices with a group of kids that were not always making the best choices. I brought him over and started talking to him to forge a relationship with him one-on-one. One of the things he told me was that he loved soccer so we started playing soccer together. It was a lot of fun. I continued that bond with him the next year and even taught his sister. When he finished 5th grade, I gave him a soccer ball. Where he lives, families cannot afford that type of stuff. He asked me to sign it for him so I did with a message. I still run into his parents at Costco, and they tell me about how he is doing in college. I also saw him when he was a server at Cheesecake Factory. It’s all about building relationships. No matter where you are or what your role is, you have to take that time to build those relationships with your students. Kids need somebody. We all need to be the one for them. We have the power to make those connections, be there for them, and that will change their lives forever. Check post: Get Connected and Build Relationships

Another post was about Everyone Needs an Advocate. Who was your advocate? Why do our kids need advocates?

Growing up, my advocate was my mom. We didn’t always see eye-to-eye especially during my homeschooling years. She would have broken any barriers for me. Now my wife is my advocate. She’s pushing me to be a better person, a better husband and father, a better educator, and better writer. I never thought I was a good writer, but now my “Be the One” blog has had over 12,000 people read it. That’s the awesome power about have the advocate who pushes you. I’ve surrounded myself with people who I want to be like. I want to increase the level and rigor in my writing. Adam Welcome has been a huge mentor to me, a close friend, and believes in my message. My mom is still my advocate. My wife is the one who pushes me to be the man I am today. Post Everyone Needs an Advocate

It’s all about building memories and a positive environment. What if educators share their memories (good and bad) with kids? Is that okay to be vulnerable?

Vulnerability and sharing those real life experiences is huge. That’s going to look completely different in elementary school from high school. That’s what people need to be careful about. We don’t have to always go into the details. I swam and played water polo in college, but when I went to Cal State East Bay, they didn’t have water polo. So I joined the cross-country team. I wanted to be part of a team, and I was horrible. I came in the last place in almost every race, but I did it. I was consistent on it and stayed with it. It is not me gloating when I share these stories. It’s okay to fail. If we can relate our stories back to that it is okay to fail, model that and share our circumstances, then that’s a win. FAIL = First Attempt In Learning.

We need to create a culture at our school where it’s okay to fail. That’s one of my big messages this year to my staff and students. It’s something I started last year. I tell kids that I fail on a daily basis. Kids come up to me and say “Mr. Sheehy, fail harder.” I tell them that it is okay to take those leaps and chances to do that.

If we can model all that as educators through our own personal stories and admitting when we fail, then that speaks volumes to us. It teaches our kids to go out and create those relationships.Kids are going to remember those positive relationships with their teachers. It is the same with teachers. If some one is talking at a staff meeting and you don’t have a positive relationship with them, you tune them out. The same thing happens in your classrooms. We need to do some self-reflection so we can be the one to sit back, think about it, and challenge it to create those relationships to establish a positive classroom environment where all kids can learn. Read Be the One Who Makes School a Positive Memory

I just saw another new post from you about Keep Them Moving. Why do you feel it is important for kids to keep moving?

It takes me back to my physical education days. It was hard to be at some many different sites and not be part of the staff because you are always moving. One of the things I used to do was write for physical education journals and websites. I would write about how we can enhance physical education. Kids need to be moving so I wrote this latest blog for some easy ways to get kids up and moving. Physical education is not an outside class like in secondary schools. Teachers, especially in the elementary level, can get kids moving every day in their classrooms. My latest blog post is about being the one that gets kids moving but not take them away from the content. It is about using physical activity to enhance the classroom experience, enhance the curriculum and enhance relationships. You will see kids more engaged. So Keep Them Moving.

What are you going to be doing this coming year?

I’m going to be continuing blogging this year. I’m on fire right now with a passion for “Be the One.” That’s my manifesto. That’s something we all need to live by. I think there is so much passion in there that we need to invest our time to create relationships, accountability, trust, and elevate our game. I think we more we can get our messages out to people, the more we become better educators for kids. That’s the bottom line. We are at a time in education, that we need to showcase that there are amazing things happen in our schools. We need to celebrate it. We need to grow as individuals and educators to “Be the One.”

****Ryan Sheehy is principal of Highlands Elementary School in Concord, CA. It is a TK-5th grade school with approximately 650 students and 75 staff members. He is in charge of executing the school’s vision, building and implementing an instructional framework, and collaboratively working with staff and community to design a school that is student focused. Ryan is also an adjunct professor in different credential programs and teaching classes to special education and administrative credential programs.

Professional learning encourages personal growth by teachers, but many professional development (PD) programs are designed around the “one size fits all” approach. A district may mandate that all teachers have to attend specific sessions around the district mission. Did the teachers have a voice in creating the mission? How does your school or district’s PD support teacher’s personal professional learning goals?

That’s not always been the case in existing professional development programs. According to The Teaching Commission report “Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action” in 2004, there was an urgent need in “helping our teachers to succeed and enabling our children to learn is an investment in human potential, one that is essential to guarantee America’s future freedom and prosperity.” Since this report was released, most professional development programs were not part of an overall, well-planned approach for school staff. There have been multiple research studies with many reports on what makes effective professional development. Concepts in common include:

recognizes teachers as professionals

focuses on student learning

collaborative communities of practice

supported by administrators with funding and time to practice new skills

Teachers are learners too. What if teachers take charge of their own professional learning by reflecting on the process and demonstrating evidence of learning? What if there was a way for teachers to propose strategies that support exactly what they need for their own professional growth? What if teachers have time to develop relationships with colleagues to learn from each other? Don’t you think that now is the time to change traditional “sit and get” professional development and move to personal professional learning opportunities?

“Traditional PD is given to you…
Personal Professional Learning is something you seek.”
Lisa Welch @lt1teach

It is all about owning the learning. When teachers identify and address what they need and want to learn and the school supports them by providing resources, people, and time, then that’s personal professional learning. Consider these 7 strategies for your own personal professional learning:

1. Personal Professional Learning Plans

Personal learning involves the goals we have for ourselves to create a meaningful and fulfilling life. Professional learning involves the skills we need to be successful in our job or career. Teachers can set goals that provide a personal connection to their professional learning. Teachers can do this by identifying a gap in their skills, methods lacking in their teaching practice and what makes them happy and are passionate about. After they identify any gaps and needs, they connect the goals to address strategies that are relevant and meaningful for them and meet learner outcomes. When teachers are passionate about what they do, learners benefit.

2. Educator Competencies

The Educator Competencies for Personalized, Learner-Centered Teaching identify the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that educators need in order to create and thrive in effective personalized, learner-centered environments. The Competencies are organized into four domains—Cognitive, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Instructional along with the guiding principles developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and Jobs for the Future with the interactive version at Students at the Center Hub. Teachers can review the competencies when they are designing their goals.

3. Coaching

Personal professional learning is all about change. Change takes time and doesn’t happen overnight. Vygotsky’s theory on the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the distance between a student’s ability to perform a task under adult guidance and/or with peer collaboration and the student’s ability solving the problem independently. According to Vygotsky, learning occurred in this zone.

ZPD is where teachers can learn with support from a coach. A coach can be a colleague, administrator, mentor, or even a student who nudges and nurtures the teacher to research strategies to meet their goals. When a teacher has support from anyone anywhere, they are more open to taking risks and trying new things. When teachers are addressing something they are passionate about and learner outcomes, that’s how change happens.

4. Make Your Own Playlist

I know when I want to learn a skill like how to fold a scarf, I go to YouTube. I know kids do that. Add videos to your own YouTube channel. Here’s a link to how you can create your own playlist. If you are looking for inspirational videos, go to the Teaching Channel and bookmark the videos that can help you address the gaps you identified in your teaching practice.

When I’m in my car on a long drive, I listen to iTunes U on podcasts that I subscribed to. Some podcasts open doors to ideas you might not even know about until you hear them. Here’s a link to my podcast series, Conversations on Learning with awesome educators.

5. Build your PLN

Teachers can develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN) with educators at their school and beyond. A PLN is all about fostering collaborative relationships. They can make connections and build personal relationships with educators and experts globally. Social media opens these doors. No matter where teachers are in the world, there’s always someone online available to share their expertise, chat about what’s happening in their lives and classrooms, and provide resources. Teachers can collaborate globally on projects.

For teachers new to social media, I recommend them to join Twitter and participate in a chat. Find educators with similar interests to follow and retweet. To build their PLN, teachers can showcase what they do in a blog and share all the positive things happening in their classrooms in social media. Add your Twitter handle below and I’ll connect you to some cool folks. @bbray27

6. Micro-credentials

Digital Promise offers micro-credentials to provide competency-based recognition for professional learning that provides teachers with the opportunity to gain recognition for skills they master throughout their careers. The micro-credentials provide teachers a new way of demonstrating evidence of learning through the eyes of their learners. They share examples of work and reflections from learners along with their own reflections. Read more about Personal Professional Learning through Micro-Credentials.

7. Edcamps

Edcamps are un-conferences. Topics for sessions are determined by participants at the event, where conversation and collaboration are paramount. Educators who want to learn and collaborate are welcome, at no expense to them. There are no planned sessions. Participants suggest topics and vote on which topics they want to be part of. A schedule is built so participants can choose from different topics each hour. The “rule of two feet” empowers participants to find sessions that best meet their needs. If a session isn’t working for them, they are encouraged to find one that is. Teachers find the un-conference feel works when they choose the topics that help them meet their goals.

What are you doing to make your learning relevant, meaningful, and joyful?

More schools and districts will redesign job-embedded professional learning around the needs of each teacher by offering some of the ideas above along with book studies, lunch and learn and even meeting over coffee (Coffee EDU). We will see a change in teacher evaluations moving from teachers being accountable for test scores to a collaborative community of learners based on the competencies. I’ll be taking these ideas deeper in future posts. If you have any ideas or resources to share, please add them as comments below.

Alex Corbitt is a middle school English teacher in The Bronx, New York. His work focuses primarily on socio-emotional learning, gamification, education technology, and literacy. Alex’s passion for teaching will thrive as long as he continues to laugh with and learn from his incredible students.

I met Alex on Twitter and was so impressed with how active he is on social media. When I asked Alex if he would join me in a conversation on my podcast series, he was so open about sharing that I couldn’t wait to talk to him. After our conversation, I found that he was leaving the next day for a big family trip overseas. Alex made sure he accommodated me and my time and sent me amazing resources for the blog post. Below are excerpts from the conversation. I hope you listen to the whole podcast and enjoy the conversation with Alex as much as I did.

Can you share your background, where you live, and your role as a middle school English teacher in the Bronx?

I grew up in a suburb of New Jersey and attended Fordham University as an undergrad which was my introduction to New York and the Bronx. I live in a Queens, NY since coming here for college and love it here because of the food, music, just exploring the city, going to museums, and hanging out with friends. I have been working at a small middle school in the Bronx right near Yankee stadium for about 5 years now. A fun fact is that I teach in the same classroom that I did my student teaching. I had a great mentor who was transitioning into a leadership role so he said to me, “why don’t you just stay here?” So I did. The school is in a community with a lot of high needs population with 99% qualifying for free and reduced lunch. I work with predominantly Dominican, Puerto Rican, and West African students. They are all incredible even in the face of challenges. We are all a big family, and I get support and trust from the parents. My co-teacher and I also have 2 ICT classes with students with special needs and general students.

You said one of your focuses is on socio-emotional learning. Can you explain why socio-emotional learning is so important?

When I was in grad school, I heard of an interesting analogy comparing adolescents to a man riding an elephant along a path. The man symbolizes adolescents logic and the elephant is their emotions. Our job as educators are to frame the path that the elephant walks along. That spoke a lot to me. Before I try to appeal to my students’ rationale thought, I want to be very mindful of the space that I create is a space of emotional support. Really tending to the elephant metaphorically. As an educator am I creating a space that is safe emotionally, physically, and academically. The way to do is not by lecturing them, but rather to be a model of what you want to see. For example, if I want my students to take academic risks, I need to be at the head of that endeavor. I need to take academic risks and even fall on my face. We can all laugh together so we can help each other. I always try to be mindful jumping into whatever activity I ask them to do and be right by their side.

What do you do at the beginning of the year to build the culture of learning?

I have been outlining ideas about building a culture so this is a great question. One thing I do within the confines of a 55 minutes period is trying to find time in between classes to find out what their interests are and information about their culture. I always tell them on the first day of school that they don’t know me yet, and I don’t know them very well, but I’m going to put myself out there and tell them right away that I have their back. I tell them that I struggle and have bad days just like everyone else. I became a teacher because I get a big kick out of kids. I love laughing. I want them to know that I’m here to support them. I teach 7th grade. I wouldn’t say this in a school setting but another analogy. Some people call middle school like whiskey. At first, the taste is really yucky but over time you grow a taste for it. When I came into the 7th-grade setting, the kids were so genuine and honest. They really challenged me to be vulnerable and just. It’s been fun. If I feel like I’m losing a kid, I question myself what I’m not doing with them. That’s when I need to connect to them and let them know I care. Kids have a lot of compassion to reciprocate if I have a bad day. We really become a family.

How important is it to have support from administrators?

When I talk about my school setting and how I run my classroom, experienced educators and coaches can sense that I have a good administration, and I do. My principal is very open-minded, very compassionate and very progressive. She empowers us to go with our gut to put kids first. We are in a place right in the middle of the achievement gap. Our test scores are tough. There is the temptation for administration to go right into test prep and squash all love of learning. My principal has the deep courage to not do that even though her instincts might be to order the books and hand them out.

My life has been on educational technology for years and you mentioned that and gamification. How do you integrate those in your classrooms?

Our school is not a 1:1 school so all kids do not have the laptops or tablets. One thing that I’ve learned is that gamification can take many forms. Any learning experience can reflect video game design. You can choose your own character, you gain experience points, you level up, and you earn badges. We try to bring the principles into pedagogy. I can give you two examples. I facilitate projects that require my kids to pick roles and to role-play.

One that I do is a talk show project where you have so many different jobs: the host, guest, writers, musical guests, commercials. With each role, my kids can dictate the way they can critically engage with the project. The purpose of the project is that all the guests on the talk show are acting as characters from the books they are reading. So they have to go back to have a deeply intimate understanding of their character so when the hosts interview them, they can embody that character and speak with authority. It’s a lot of fun and doesn’t feel like school. There are multiple kids doing different things at the same time whether up front or behind the scene. That’s one way I add character roles in my class.

Another form of gamification is when I launch argumentative writing. A good argument needs to have a claim, back it up with reasons, cite textual evidence, and a rule or some type of evidence that backs up your claim. When I added a form of gamification, it skyrocketed the whole intellectual endeavor. The way I frame it now is that I put my students in the context of being a crime scene detective. All good detectives need to be able to argue very well. This is not my idea.

I got this from George Helix wrote a book on an argument where he suggests that you take comic book mysteries that can be solved with argumentative thinking. I took that and we look at mystery comics, mystery graphics, and then we read stories of different mysteries that are open-ended. The students work in groups or independently trying to use argumentative writing to claim who they think is the murderer, giving reasons and citing textual evidence. They are warranting their thinking by how evidence ties back to who they think who did it. Here’s an idea of Crime and Puzzlement and comic for Arsonist Mysteries below:

I saw that you created and produced the “Teacher on the Street” segment for NCTE’s Voices from the Middle Podcast. Can you tell me more about how you came up with this and about some of the segments?

One thing that gets me inspired is being part of larger professional communities and learning from other teachers. I learn a ton from my peers at school and learn from folks on Twitter. Recently I went to Apple’s ADE Academy and learned so much. I produce NCTE Voices from the Middle podcast to pick teacher’s brains about different topics and to learn about incredible things they are doing in their classrooms. I definitely do it for the listeners of the podcast, but I also do it for myself. I learn so much every time I create an episode and I encourage you and your listeners to look for the next installment coming out in a few weeks where I talk to my students to get feedback from them.

I just don’t know how you do everything and teach full-time. Then I found the Litcraft Bundles of teacher materials. When and why did you create these?

I worked very closely with an artist Ryan Valice who did all of the design and artwork. I gave him rough drafts and he turned them into great designs. I am under no illusion or believe that teacher instruction is the best way to become a good reader. I place a lot of value into independent reading so I created a system that I now call Litcraft. I set different benchmarks on a poster which goes back to the idea of gamification. All of my kids start on the first level in September which is “Reading Apprentice.” After they read 2 or 3 books, they move up to “Reading Knight.” Then they level up to Reading Ninja → Reading Master → Reading Titan by reading more books. I created bookmarks that go with it. So as my kids walk around the school with their color bookmark sticking out of their books, there is a sense of pride of what level they read up to. It gamified reading by kids becoming better readers by achieving new levels in Litcraft and getting new bookmarks. They are gaining new responsibilities and abilities in the classroom. They love to show off their bookmarks and are proud of their achievements. My next was how to share this with others. At first, I was sending people my pdfs of the materials I made personally, but eventually, I needed a way to roll this out in a bigger capacity. So that’s how Litcraft started.

What do you have planned for this coming school year?

I’ll be super honest. I have absolutely no idea. I have lots of ideas swimming in my head right now especially after returning from ADE in Texas. I am going to use August as my Sunday – planning all Sunday in August how to use technology in my classroom.

*****

Alex Corbitt is a middle school English teacher in The Bronx, New York. His work focuses primarily on socio-emotional learning, gamification, education technology, and literacy. He loves learning from other teachers and he regularly presents at conferences around the United States. Alex’s passion for teaching will thrive as long as he continues to laugh with and learn from his incredible students.

Personalizing learning means different things to different people. The idea I want to share behind personalized learning is to empower learners including you as a learner to own and drive learning. That’s not easy especially when teachers have so much on their plates. It could be easier to continue with the status quo. But the teachers I know want the best for all of their learners. This post is to provide a few reasons to consider when you personalize learning.

1. No one is average.

In Dr. Todd Rose’s book, The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World the Values Sameness, he explains why we came to embrace the scientifically flawed idea that averages can be used to understand individuals. Rose offers a powerful alternative with three principles of individuality: the jaggedness principle (talent is never one-dimensional), the context principle (traits are a myth), and the pathways principle (we all walk the road less traveled). He explains that we are all unique and can take full advantage of individuality to gain an edge in life.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? I believe each of us is unique and all of us are learners. When I read Dr. Rose’s book, he explained about variability and why education has to change to meet the needs of each individual learner.

“Why is there no average learner?”

2. The Myth of Learning Styles.

We are all unique as Dr. Rose mentioned in his book, End of Average. Because of who we are and how we all learn in different ways, learners have preferences about how they learn. According to the authors [Riener and Willingham, 2014], whether we call it talent, ability, or intelligence, people vary in their capacity to learn different areas of content, differ in their background knowledge, and, intertwined with ability, they differ in their interests. When we identify a learner as one learning style over another, it does not follow the research about how the brain works. We use all of the modalities because that is how our brain works.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? I’ve seen so many learners labeled visual or kinesthetic so teachers differentiated instruction based on one or two labels. All of us have multiple dimensions that make us who we are. Most of us are visual learners unless we cannot see. Even blind people visualize in their heads what they are seeing. I will be writing more about this, but I hope schools rethink why they should not use learning styles to label a child.

“Why are learning styles debunked?”

3. How our Brain Learns.

Learning is a neurobiological process indicated by the growth and strengthening of connections between neurons. The brain is constantly changing which is called neuroplasticity. This means the brain can be improved and continues to adapt and learn through life even into our old age. The human potential for learning is limitless at any age. When you learn something new, your brain makes new connections. Your brain is even active when you reflect on your learning. You learn when your brain is active especially when learners ask questions, investigate, create, or reflect on their learning. Passive exposure or listening to a lecture does not necessarily lead to learning.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? Our brain is constantly changing as we learn. When a school or parent believes that a child is born with certain traits or talents, this can cause the child to believe that’s all they are. This happened to me. I was told I wasn’t very smart. I believed that during most of my school. My parents always believed in me and fought for me. And, on my own, I read and was hungry to learn. So I did. I was lucky to have parents who believed in me and a teacher who believed in my writing. I finally realized that I could learn anything if I put my mind to it. So now I write, share, and learn something new every day. I know that every child can learn because their brain is growing and learning every day. All children can learn if we give them opportunities and the support they need.

“How does the brain work?”

4. Universal Design for Learning® as the Framework

David Rose and Ann Meyers from The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) founded Universal Design for Learning® (UDL) based on decades of brain research and the neuroscience of individual differences, human variability, and how we learn. UDL is about reducing or eliminating the barriers to learning and optimizing levels of support to meet the needs and interests of all learners in the classroom. They realized that the curriculum, not the learner, was the problem. UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional methods, materials, and assessments that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? We need to put more energy into finding out how children learn best. Universal Design for Learning does that. The three principles, Multiple Means of Engagement, Multiple Means of Representation, and Multiple Means of Action and Expression, pave the way. All three of the principles work together, but when you start with the “Why” of what engages you to want to learn, nothing can stop you. It is about encouraging curiosity and wonder. That passion to learn is what is so exciting about personalized learning.

“How can we reduce barriers to learning?”

5. Accountability vs. Responsibility

The word “responsibility” tends to be interchangeable with the word “accountability.” In many cases, teachers feel they are the ones responsible for students to learn. The reason is that the system seems to hold them and the school accountable for what students learn. “Accountability” refers to making, keeping, and managing agreements and expectations where “responsibility” is the feeling of ownership. So this means that each learner needs to be held accountable for what they learn by taking responsibility for their own learning.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? If the teacher is the hardest person working in the classroom, then who are the people really learning? Learning is not about passively receiving information. When the teacher is the one held accountable for what kids learn, then learning becomes work, not fun for both the teacher and learners. When our kids have a voice and choice in what and how they learn, they want to learn. They are motivated to learn. When they realize learning is for them not for a grade or for the teacher, they own it and develop agency.

“Who owns the learning?”

****

All learners can learn. It is our job as educators to provide the environment and support system so learners have a voice and choice in their learning. These are just a few reasons for you to consider if you go on the journey to personalize learning for all of your learners. I plan to write more posts that explain each of these reasons in more detail and discuss learner agency in depth in several posts.

Dr. Jackie Gerstein has been teaching in-person and online for several decades. Currently, she teaches master’s level online courses in educational technology for Boise State, Walden, and Western Governors’ Universities as well as gifted elementary education where she focuses on STEM, STEAM, and Maker Education.

I was so lucky to present with Jackie at ISTE 2017 in San Antonio and participate in a webinar with her about maker education. I am constantly learning from her and am always blown away with how much she knows and shares with the world. When Jackie agreed to have a conversation with me, we had to talk about maker ed. I captured some of the conversations from the podcast and referred to references mentioned in her blog below.

Can you share about you, your background, and how you decided to focus on maker education?

I was one of those painfully, bored kids in my K-12 education [ Freedom to Learn 2017]. I hated school and didn’t think it was fair. In college, I took a course in environmental education. For part of that course, we went out to the local camp where I worked with 5th and 6th graders for a week. We studied marine life by walking down a creek. To learn history, we went to a local cemetery and did gravestone rubbings to look at their lineage. This just made sense. It was real and kids were learning content. So I thought, “why wasn’t my education like this?” Maker education is just a form of experiential education and now I am thrilled that it is becoming very popular in schools and libraries right now.

Why did you come up with A Framework for Maker Education?

Coming from the experiential ed field, it’s this idea that if we just have an experience, then we leave learning up to chance. It’s based on the experiential learning cycle where you do a front load by framing experience, doing the experience, then reflecting on the experience. The cycle is not anything new. I just tweaked it to be more modern day and applicable to Maker Ed, STEM and STEAM, and to include more technology.

How do you connect making with what kids are supposed to be learning?

When you give someone a worksheet, they are learning one skill that’s often no related to anything else. You and I have talked about learning in context. If you give a kid a sheet with just math problems, they don’t connect to anything else in their lives. So you’re spending that time on things kids will probably forget and often do because it doesn’t have a context they can relate to. When we do Maker and STEAM activities, it is so easy to go through them and say how you are addressing cross-curricular common core standards within the activities. The kids are excited because they are learning skills not only related to the standards that teachers are asked to address, they are learning how to talk to each other, how to present orally, how to work together in a team, how to be innovative, how to use their creativity, and addressing the standards. We have this huge list of things kids are learning from a one-hour activity versus one or two things they might have learned from that hour long worksheet. [Games or Worksheets]

What is the connection with maker education and social-emotional learning?

I’m not a big fan of step-by-step activities where kids all end up with the same product. I call it the Thanksgiving Turkey where kids are all given a hand that they trace out on brown paper and stick on feathers. They all look the same except their name on the back. There are things like Gami-bots or different kinds of projects that are open-ended where kids can put themselves in them. By the nature of them being open ended instead of close-ended projects where all the products are the same, kids develop social emotional learning. I wrote a blog post “Helping Kids Move Beyond I Can’t Do This.”

I work with gifted elementary students and do summer camps for elementary kids. Almost every time with the nature of the projects, I hear “I can’t do this.” And that’s usually because it doesn’t work the first time exactly the way they want. It’s the same with worksheets where they get them right the first time or not and then the teacher moves on. They don’t have time to master it so they just move on. Even adults get frustrated about this because they didn’t have the experiences of making something, having it fail, and trying multiple iterations around it. They aren’t developing the idea of what do I do when I’m frustrated or how to ask for help. I tell kids to ask another kid for help. In real life, there is no teacher there for them to ask for help. So they have to figure out ways to get the help they need. There is so much social emotional learning happening in maker education. What they do with one project helps them with the next one.

How do you make reflection a powerful part of your framework?

I encourage my kids to blog. I might do a Twitter hashtag and a YouTube channel this year too. There are other ways to encourage them to reflect on their learning. I’m in a Title I school where I have kids with parents from Mexico so they’re not that comfortable with social media. I sent home a permission slip even though some parents may not have signed the AUP, they all give permission because they want to see the projects. I do Google photos for them so I take a lot of pictures. I never use kids names. You saw the videos of my kids. Even though you know where I live, you don’t know what schools. There are 19 elementary schools in my town and there is no mention of the names of the schools. There are lots of ways to get kids to reflect. I might have them create a comic strip, infographic, or a photo essay and put those on their blogs. They love YouTube so if I start a YouTube channel, they’ll eat that up. So that involves Universal Design for Thinking® that offers different ways for them to reflect on their experiences. [Check Documenting and Reflecting on Learning]

How do you encourage your teachers to incorporate makerspaces in their schools?

Human beings like to make. Good teachers have always done making and experiential ed in their classrooms. Look at the teacher gardener in the Bronx who created hydroponic gardens and encouraged kids go to the Farmers Market to sell their goods. I had some of my college students encouraging empathy by doing a social studies project having their kids write in a journal about being one of the settlers as if they were on a journey. I hope that making doesn’t become just one more flavor of the month. If people associate making with only 3D printers and laser cutters, first, many schools cannot afford those and second, teachers and librarians have said that’s not what they’re about. [The Classroom or Library as a Makerspace]

There are tools and resources that are affordable and useful like cardboard and play dough. I found out about activities and resources from social media. So I tell my ed tech graduate students as well as my student teachers to follow hashtags like #makered, #STEM, and #STEAM. That’s where I found out about using pumpkin cutters for making and where to find them for low prices especially right after Halloween. We don’t all have to be reinventing the wheel. [Read Teacher PD: Purposeful Tinkering and Application]

It’s important to share. We talked about this idea that educators do not want to share out work. People have said to me, “but I’m not getting paid then for that work.” I always say that we get so much back for sharing. When you do share out, you get rewards from people coming up to you and thanking you. I’ve gotten jobs because I share my work. I think it is not about living in the Win-Lose model. Same thing with kids going back to the reflective piece I mentioned before, one of my beliefs is that kids should be sharing their work out to a broader audience. It motivates us. When someone comes up to me at a conference and tells me that they read my blog and it helps them, there’s no bigger reward than that.

Educators love sharing on social media. I never heard of squishy circuits and then I saw some links about using playdough or make your own. Then I got some LED lights and batteries at the dollar store. I have my kids interview each other to design an animal with squishy circuits for their classmate. I shared this out and a teacher may find a better idea or adds onto this project then shares it with others. This then becomes a collective, cumulative sharing, and then everyone benefits. Teachers don’t have to reinvent everything or figure things on their own anymore.

Before we end the podcast, can you share some of the maker projects you are doing with kids?

I do different themes. The cardboard creations where we spent a week 3 hours a day. We did circuit camp. We did Toy Making and Hacking. This was probably one of my favorites. The first part of the week, they make toys. The second part, I bought a pile of old handheld games that you can get in lots from eBay. They take apart those games and you should see their looks when they take apart the circuit boards, screens, and the keys.

They have to invent a new game out of the parts and create a prototype that doesn’t have to be working. They have to create a posterboard that says the name of the game, who it’s from, the rules and designed an app for it so you get to see what it looks like. There are so many ways to bring maker ed activities into all environments.

Dr. Jackie Gerstein’s byline is, “I don’t do teaching for a living. I live teaching as my doing . . . and technology has amplified my passion for doing so.” Dr. Gerstein has been teaching in-person and online for several decades. Currently, she teaches master’s level online courses in educational technology for Boise State, Walden, and Western Governors’ Universities as well as gifted elementary education where she focuses on STEM, STEAM, and Maker Education.

She believes that one of the roles and responsibilities of the 21st-century educator is to share resources, ideas, and instructional strategies with other educators.

Every school is unique and has its own demographics and issues. Every learner comes to school with their strengths, challenges, background, and concerns. In fact, each class is unique because of the teacher and how they present what it means to be part of the class. One way to build the culture is to start the year by getting to know each other. The time you spend building a strong classroom culture in the first few weeks of school will bring amazing returns every day of the year. You can build a compassionate classroom and place relationships at the center of the classroom that are based on trust and respect. Relationships matter! So how do you build trust and a caring classroom?

Our first questions should be, “What do children need?”… followed immediately by “How can we meet those needs?” Alfie Kohn

Culture Building Activities

Here are a few culture building activities for any age learners to build a positive classroom culture where they get to know and care about the teacher and each other.

1. Welcome Message

What message does your classroom give right when people walk in? What about creating a welcome sign? The picture on the left has a message that you can make personal to represent the culture in your class. The welcome sign doesn’t have to be a sign; it can be a poster or a welcome mat. The idea is to make your classroom inviting to anyone who wants to learn or visit your class.

2. Special Greetings

Instead of jumping right into academics as soon as your learners come in the door, what about coming up with a special greeting just for your class? Some teachers even have special handshakes. You don’t have to memorize a special handshake for each learner, but please memorize their names. Find a way to make each learner unique and valued for who they are. Do some homework to find out something each learner is passionate about or some event they were involved in. When you greet each learner, look them in the eye, say their name, and mention something or ask a question about them, it makes a difference. I saw this video from the Atlanta Speech School on Facebook and felt it just had to be shared here also.

3. Morning Meetings

A compassionate classroom is also a responsive community. A morning meeting is an engaging way to start each day and to focus on social-emotional learning using strategies to foster a sense of belonging and caring. The teacher can start off the year defining empathy and model how to do active listening. Learners can sit in a circle and greet each other. The teacher can invite learners to pair with someone they haven’t shared with before. Then have them ask each other questions about something important in their lives. The teacher can then bring everyone back and start the day with an activity or question to think about during the day. One question could be “How will you reflect on your learning today?”

4. The Power of YET

Start the year by reviewing the words we say and what they mean. In a previous post, 7 Ideas to Discover Magic in Your Classroom, I mentioned fixed vs. growth mindset. After meeting with some teachers and learners, I saw the emphasis on using the word: YET. Start off the year talking about mindset and the words that demonstrate a fixed mindset and how changing the words and statements so they demonstrate a growth mindset. But we are humans and creatures of habits. We tend to go back to saying “I can’t..” and “I’m not…” Share the word YET and see the power of it. Say it over and over until your learners use it all on their own and maybe even to correct you.

5. Me Too Activity

Have learners share something about themselves and what they like to do such as “I like Minecraft.” If other learners also like Minecraft, they then stand up and say “Me too!” Continue to invite learners to share something and see who else has the same interests or facts. Then give them time to share with each other. If they enjoy tinkering, designing, and building, invite them to put together a proposal on what they would like to create together. Have them share with another group for feedback. This Me Too activity can be used for anything that learners may want to do together.

6. Reflections

Put time aside at the end of the day or period for reflection. Come up with a question for learners to consider for reflection. A question could be about “What did you do to take a risk today in your learning?” I saw learners doing this reflection at Viscount Primary School in Mangere district of Auckland . It was very powerful to listen to the discussions they had with another learner about the risks they took. Then the teacher invited all learners to sit in a circle and share any thoughts about their reflections. It was so cool that everyone wanted to share. You could see a real compassionate classroom where everyone cared about each other.

You may find that building a culture is bigger than just one classroom; it involves the whole school. Check out the resources put together by KnowledgeWorks to help you build a positive culture.